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Rabe spots USNS Mercy in drydock in San Francisco. It’s a big boat.

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We were driving to breakfast in San Francisco Sunday when I spotted a huge red cross on a huge ship.

I didn’t have time to do more investigation until today. Turns out, according to Sam Spade’s San Francisco, it’s the USNS Mercy, the sister ship of the USS Comfort, which is helping earthquake victims in Haiti.

USNS Mercy is the lead ship of her class of hospital ships in the United States Navy. In accordance with the Geneva Conventions, USNS Mercy and her crew do not carry any ordnance. Firing on the Mercy is considered a war crime. The Mercy class hospital ships are the third largest ships in the U.S. Navy Fleet by length, surpassed only by the nuclear powered Enterprise and Nimitz-class Supercarriers. Mercy is out by the drydocks at Mission Bay. Her homeport is San Diego and she is in port for a little maintenance.

We breakfasted with Rachael Myrow, who many of you will remember was the award-winning KPCC reporter for many years.

Now, Rachael (left, in photo above with KPCC's John Rabe) is hosting The California Report on KQED in San Francisco, where she says she’s much more famous than when she was here. She gets recognized at parties now. “You’re Rachael Myrow!!!???” The bad news is she has to go to bed at 7pm, so there aren’t many parties.